Emula

Keep your NFC card UIDs in one place. Add a UID manually or read it from your card, give it a name, and tap a saved card to start emulation on a compatible Android phone.

Emula is free and open source under the GNU GPLv3 license. Your cards are stored locally, with no ads, accounts, analytics or cloud storage. There are no paid features, purchases or subscriptions.

Source code, updates and feedback:

github.com/ch3sh1re/Emula

On your phone

• Save and edit 4-, 7- and 10-byte UIDs

• Read a physical card's UID with automatic length detection

• Edit individual UID bytes with easy selection and deletion

• Find saved cards by name or UID

• Add cards from a CSV file or replace your list, and export cards to save or share

• Start or stop emulation from the app, Quick Settings, home screen widgets or launcher shortcuts

• See which card is active and stop a background session from its notification

• Explore device compatibility with built-in NFC diagnostics

Try Emula on your watch

Experimental Wear OS support currently targets Samsung Galaxy Watch9 (SM-L355F). Save and edit cards on the watch, tap to start or stop emulation, hold to edit, or swipe left to delete with confirmation. Saved cards work independently of your phone. Card scanning is not available on this watch.

Phone-to-watch copying is also experimental. Open Receive from phone on the watch, then Send all cards to watch on your paired phone. Allow Nearby devices access and keep both apps open. Transfer uses local Bluetooth without a cloud relay, keeps existing watch cards and skips matching UIDs. Copies are independent: phone edits and deletions do not change the watch's cards automatically.

Four-byte UID emulation has been confirmed with an external reader on SM-L355F. Seven- and ten-byte emulation and screen-off use on the watch have not yet been verified.

A quick setup note

Emula requires Android 15 or newer. Emulation needs compatible NFC hardware and firmware, plus a one-time WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission granted through ADB. You do not need root. The watch needs its own permission; copying cards does not require this ADB grant or start emulation.

Compatibility depends on your device, firmware and reader. Saving or reading a UID does not guarantee it can be emulated, especially for 7- and 10-byte UIDs.

What Emula can emulate

Emula works with the card's UID only. It does not copy card memory, cryptographic keys, authentication data or other security features. Use it only with cards and systems you own or are authorized to test.

Need a hand?

If emulation does not work, open the phone app menu → NFC diagnostics → Email, or copy the report and send it to dunn0dud3@gmail.com. Tell us what happened and which reader you used, if known.

Reports help investigate compatibility. They include device and firmware details and may contain card UIDs, so please review them before sending.